PFF Presents: Coup 53

Running time 120 mins Cast: Ralph Fiennes Co-writer/editor: Walter Murch Co-writer/director: Taghi Amirani In this documentary-meets-detective-story, there is a reckoning with one of the most striking foreign interventions. In 1953, a military coup led by British MI6 and backed by the CIA overthrew Iran’s democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. His crime: nationalizing the country’s oil. The truth behind that original regime change for oil was buried for decades. Iranian director Taghi Amirani, a Queen’s Park resident, spent 10 years uncovering what really happened. With the handiwork of editor Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, The English Patient) and a gripping performance by Ralph Fiennes, the film unfolds like a John le Carré spy thriller — except every word is true. Coup 53 feels less like history and more like a warning: it exposes the roots of today’s war with rare clarity and urgency.